"A [preacher] who does not love art, poetry, music and nature can be dangerous. Blindness and deafness toward the beautiful are not incidental; they are necessarily reflected in his [preaching]." — BXVI

2 comments:

I realize I’m too late on the subject and a laywoman too. Other than teaching my kids, I don’t do talking to groups. But yesterday the deacon gave the homily at our parish and, while not bad, it was very verbose to say something pretty standard. The entire 5-8 minutes can be summed up as follows: Don’t let the secularism and materilism of our culture distract you from Christ at Christmas and stay awake because we don’t know when Jesus is coming. Not a bad message at all, but it isn’t anything I haven’t heard before, don’t already know and didn’t need to have expounded on for an entire homily. I realize that is just me, and there might have been people there who did need it. But just as another perspective, as a faithful Catholic and homeschooling mom of 5 young children, it would have been nice to just once have a homily that comforted through the Second Coming. I mean, I realize Jesus is warning everyone to be ready, but what was it like to be the one taken? When the Lord comes in judgement, will the faithful suffer along side the faithless? Pope Francis recently spoke about our times as a time of persecution… if the faithful are persecuted now, couldn’t a homily on the Second Coming with anticipated hope be appropriate? The Church Militant has been fighting for 2000 years and the battle is just as fierce as it has ever been… just once I’d like not to be reprimanded for “being asleep” but comforted with the thought of our King coming in victory. Might not such a hopeful promise be even more encouraging to stay awake than the threat of being left behind? I doubt your post was really asking for help from someone like me… I don’t write homilies or give public talks, so please forgive my comment if it is out of place. I just thought I’d comment in case my perspective might be of any use. God Bless